Sotheby’s Contemporary Auctions: Exploring Tension Between Security and Exclusion, Hurvin Anderson Painting Tops $1 Million
Lot 11: HURVIN ANDERSON, “Some People (Welcome Series),” 2004 (oil on canvas, 150 by 232 cm. 59 by 91 3/8 inches). | Estimate £600,000—£800,000 ($832,560-$1,110,080). | Sold for £850,000 ($1,179,460) Hammer Price – £1,029,000 GBP ($1,427,840) including fees A SIGNIFICANT PAINTING by Hurvin Anderson topped $1 million at Sotheby’s London on March 7. A...
The Broad Acquires Mark Bradford’s Record-Setting ‘Helter Skelter I,’ Along with Works by Julie Mehretu, Kerry James Marshall
Detail of Mark Bradford’s “Helter Skelter I” (2007). ART MARKET HISTORY WAS MADE earlier this month when “Helter Skelter I,” a monumental painting by Mark Bradford sold for $10.4 million (nearly $12 million, including fees) at Phillips London. The price was the highest-ever achieved at auction for a work by a living African American...
Mark Bradford ‘Helter Skelter’ Painting Sells for Nearly $12 Million, Highest-Ever Auction Price for Work by Living African American Artist
MARK BRADFORD, Detail of “Helter Skelter I,” 2007 A MONUMENTAL PAINTING by Mark Bradford reached a historic benchmark at Phillips London on March 8. “Helter Skelter I” sold for 8,671,500 British Pounds, about $10.4 million (nearly $12 million, including fees), an artist record, and the highest-ever auction price achieved by a living African American...
The Month in African American Art: Here’s What Happened in February 2018
Kara Walker and her crew install “The Katastwóf Karavan” at Algiers Point in New Orleans. | Photo © Ari Marcopoulos by via Prospect New Orleans BLACK HISTORY MONTH was rife with notable moments in art history, chief among them, the unveiling of the Obama portraits at the National Portrait Gallery on Feb 12. Washington...
New Mark Bradford Exhibition Features Tribute to Fellow Abstract Painter Jack Whitten: ‘It Was Comforting Because I Could Look at a Lineage’
MARK BRADFORD, Detail of “Moody Blues for Jack Whitten” (2018). WHEN JACK WHITTEN JOINED Hauser & Wirth in April 2016, the gallery’s roster claimed two of contemporary art’s most innovative abstract painters—Whitten (1939-2018) and Mark Bradford. A generation apart, while the African American artists have unique approaches to abstraction, both have largely dedicated their...
On the Horizon in African American Art: What to Look Forward to in 2018
THE YEAR AHEAD MARKS KEY HISTORIC MILESTONES. Fifty years ago, Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tenn. King’s legacy will be honored this year through many programs and events. A new exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture examines the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign,...
Culture Type: The Year in Black Art 2017
POLITICS PAST AND PRESENT coursed through the art world in 2017. Issues of censorship and debates around who has the right to depict black bodies came to the fore. The biggest news stories, from White House machinations, gun violence, and immigration to the fate of Confederate monuments, racial division, and sexual harassment and assault revelations,...
The Artist Project: New Volume Explores What Artists See, What Inspires Them, When They Look at Art at The Met Museum
HOWARDENA PINDELL, Detail of “Oval Memory Series II: Castle Dragon,” 1980-81. LAST YEAR, ANDREA BOWERS was in conversation with Martha Rosler at the Dia Art Foundation. The two artists discussed “If You Lived Here…,” a project about homelessness and real estate in New York City Rosler presented at the Dia in 1989. Invited to...
Holiday Gift Guide 2017: Exhibition Posters for the Art Lovers on Your List
AN EXHIBITION POSTER featuring “Bid ‘Em In/Slave (Angie)” by Barkley Hendricks (1945-2017) was produced on the occasion of “Black Fire: A Constant State of Revolution,” a 2015-16 group show at the Sheldon Museum of Art in Lincoln, Neb. I discovered the poster last spring, shortly after the artist died. The image features a female...
November Exhibitions: 18 New Shows Feature African American Artists Nick Cave, Ellen Gallagher, Sam Gilliam, Mark Bradford, Nina Chanel Abney, Kehinde Wiley, and More
“White River Fish Kill” (2017) by Nina Chanel Abney. PROSPECT.4 OPENS TO THE PUBLIC on Saturday. The international triennial features major exhibitions and inventive installations by more than 70 artists, including prominent artists of African descent, the late Barkley L. Hendricks, Derrick Adams, John Akomfrah, Hank Willis Thomas, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Kahlil Joseph, Odili...
Survey: The Latest News in African American Art and Beyond, Nov. 8, 2017
SURVEY is a review of the latest news and happenings related to visual art by and about people of African descent, with the occasional nod to cultural matters. SEVERAL MAJOR EXHIBITION featuring African American artists are opening this week including Mark Bradford at the Hirshhorn Museum, Nick Cave at the Frist Center, Nina Chanel Abney...
WSJ. Magazine Recognizes Mark Bradford’s Banner Year with 2017 Innovator Award
ART SHOULD GET RIGHT UP IN YOUR FACE. “A good art work should rush out so close up to you that you are so uncomfortable. It should just rush out and get in your face,” Mark Bradford says in a new WSJ. The Wall Street Journal Magazine video. He talks about how America is...
Anderson Cooper on His Newfound Passion for Contemporary Art: ‘I Really Love Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Toyin Ojih Odutola’
ABOUT TWO YEARS AGO, Anderson Cooper “got really serious” about collecting art. In an interview with Town & Country, the CNN anchor and 60 Minutes correspondent discusses how he and his partner Benjamin Maisani are assembling a collection that represents their disparate tastes and shared interests. Of the two, Maisani is the veteran collector...
Major African American Contemporary Artists are Bringing Their Work to Washington, D.C.
A post shared by Hirshhorn (@hirshhorn) on Oct 14, 2017 at 11:16am PDT Theaster Gates presented “Plantation Lullabies,” a discussion and performance, at the Hirshhorn Museum Oct. 13. THE HIRSHHORN MUSEUM was infused with sacred, soulful music on Friday evening. The museum hosted the second installment of Theaster Gates‘s four-part series Processions. The collaborative...
May 18: Art Museum Day Raises Awareness of Cultural and Community Contributions
Installation view of Inspiring Beauty: 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair” at GWU Museum and The Textile Museum. | Photo by Victoria L. Valentine MUSEUMS ARE BEING CELEBRATED around the world with an emphasis on the critical role the institutions play in civil society. On May 18, hundreds of museums are observing Art Museum...
Artist and Citizen: Mark Bradford Presents His Democratic Vision at Venice Biennale
Installation view, from left, MARK BRADFORD, “Leucosia,” 2016 (mixed media on canvas); “Medusa,” 2016 (acrylic, paint, paper, rope, caulk), and “Raidne,” 2017 (mixed media on canvas). OVER THE PAST YEAR, Mark Bradford has been ruminating. Chosen in April 2016 to represent the United States at the 57th Venice Biennale, the Los Angeles artist has...
May Exhibitions: Mark Bradford Reps U.S. at Venice Biennale, Martine Syms at MoMA, Plus Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Pope.L, Beauford Delaney, Kehinde Wiley, and More
MUST-SEE EXHIBITIONS featuring some of the most interesting black female artists working today are opening around the world this month. The first solo museum show of Los Angeles-based Martine Syms opens May 27 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In the same city, an amazing show of new portrait paintings by British...
April Exhibitions: Mark Bradford Pays Homage to Clyfford Still, Plus ‘Black Radical Women,’ Radcliffe Bailey, Deana Lawson, Nari Ward, Terry Adkins, and More
SPRING SHOWS ARE HERE and the rich selection runs the gamut, from exhibitions of innovative new works to scholarly examinations of important historic movements. Exploring the intersection of race, feminism, political action, art production, the much-anticipated “We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85” is opening at the Brooklyn Museum. In advance of his representation...
How Much is That Painting? Top 25 Auction Lots by African American Artists, 2014-2016
Julie Mehretu, “Looking Back to a Bright New Future” (2003). EARLY NEXT MONTH, major auction houses in New York and London are holding post-war and contemporary art sales. In anticipation of the first significant offerings of the year, Culture Type is assessing the state of art by Black artists. In recent years, a cluster...
Collection Highlights: Museum of Modern Art’s 2015-16 Acquisitions Include More than 50 Works by African American Artists
KARA WALKER, “40 Acres of Mules,” 2015 THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART’S collection boasts dozens of new additions by African American artists. Over the past two years the museum has acquired paintings by Mark Bradford, Kerry James Marshall, Chris Ofili, and Faith Ringgold; drawings by Palmer Hayden, Adrian Piper, and Kara Walker; sculptures by...
